Jet looked away, but not before he caught a flash of grief that was so sharp and raw, it twisted his stomach.
‘No, I knew exactly who my husband was all along. It was him who wanted me to be someone else. We have a lot in common.’
An easy silence settled between them, but Dan’s mind was whirling.
Someone else.
That’s who Juliet Temple had looked like to him in those pictures. Someone else. Certainly not Jet. Could this woman sitting next to him almost brushing her shoulder against his, wearing sweatpants and a hastily pulled back ponytail, be Juliet Temple? Was it really possible?
And if she was Juliet, who was Jet? Was Jet who she’d always wanted to be?
If it was true, it was an absolute tragedy. Another thought occurred to Dan. If Jet was Juliet Temple, that meant he had just called Andrew Temple an arsehole. The son of Australia’s biggest media empire and one of the most powerful men in the country.
Dan swallowed a laugh, but it was impossible to hold it back. It was too unreal and just too damn funny. The amusement burst forth and he didn’t try to stop it. He chuckled, and then the chuckle turned into laughter, genuine deep laughter that felt good.
Jet watched him with a confused smile. After the first few days of knowing her, he’d decided to make a game out of it. Smiling at her. Laughing. Grinning. Just to see if he could make her smile back. Each time she did, he considered it a personal victory. He laughed some more.
‘Dan?’
He held up a hand and finally managed to get a hold of himself.
‘Dan, what’s so funny?’
‘Me. Not you. All me.’
‘Well, yeah, you are pretty amusing, but what in particular?’
Dan didn’t stop to think, he just reached right over and cupped her good cheek in his hand, brushing his thumb across her soft skin.
Her eyes lit with surprise and then to his deep satisfaction they darkened.
‘Dan?’ She sounded breathless this time.
He felt breathless, too. It didn’t matter, he realised. It didn’t matter that she might be Juliet Temple, because he didn’t care. All he cared about was this amazing woman sitting beside him. She could be the next in line to the throne for all it mattered. And if her ex-husband turned out to be Andrew Temple?
Screw him. If Temple had really tried to turn Jet into something she was not, then that made him the world’s biggest arsehole.
And if that meant Dan had even the slightest chance with someone like Jet, then that made him the luckiest man alive.
Now all he had to do was find out.
Chapter Seventeen
Dan was going to kiss her. And Jet wanted him to.
She was afraid to move, too scared she might ruin the moment and scare him off. She’d been doing that ever since he’d arrived home. Scaring him off. It was what she should be doing now. She couldn’t let him kiss her. Things were already too complicated.
As she looked deep into his pale blue eyes, she wondered if that was actually true. For some strange reason, things always seemed uncomplicated with Dan.
His hopeful expression, like she was the most precious thing in the world, made her heart break a little. She’d never had a man look at her that way before.
It was why she didn’t resist when he dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers. It felt like a test, like he was taking the briefest of tastes, waiting to see what her reaction was.
Jet was sitting down but she felt weak—in a good way. Dan Rhodes had just tasted her like she was the finest of wines. It was a dizzying thought. This man who spent his days urging the best out of the vines, ever-patient and visionary. She suddenly had no doubt that if she let him do more than taste, he would savour her and lavish her with attention until her body ached with pleasure.
He brushed his lips against hers again and this time it wasn’t enough. She kissed him back, inviting him to taste more of her.
Jet felt him stiffen and wondered what she’d done wrong. Then he pressed his forehead to hers, releasing a shuddering breath, and she understood she hadn’t done anything wrong at all.
He shifted his weight so he was closer to her, and this time when he kissed her, he drank her in. Jet melted in his arms willingly. It was easy to relinquish control to a man who made her feel revered.
Her hand found his cheek, traced the line of his jaw, her fingers grazing his stubble as they went, further back into his thick hair until her hand curled around the back of his neck, pulling him in deeper still.
His low groan lit a fire in her. His tongue was demanding but at the same time gentle. Urging her to feel more, to want more.
Without letting go of him, she climbed into his open lap, settling herself on top of his jean-clad legs. Dan sucked in a sharp breath and stilled beneath her, his arousal pressing against her sweatpants, which were much thinner than she’d realised. She kissed him again, arching her hips as she did so, and Dan’s groan was gruff this time.
His hand swept up her side, coming up to cradle the weight of her breast through her T-shirt. Impatiently, she lifted the fabric out of the way and pushed his hand underneath. His warm fingers slid beneath her bra, kneading, stroking and gently pinching.
Jet broke off the kiss and let her head fall back with a sigh. He kept tasting her, his lips travelling down to explore her exposed neck, like she was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted.
Distantly she knew she should stop, that things were moving too quickly, too fast.
Just one more kiss, she told herself.
As she brought her mouth back down on his lips, his hand dropped to her hip and gripped her tightly. They were close, but not close enough.
‘Jet,’ he whispered between kisses, long, slow kisses, like he had all the time in the world—except for his obvious arousal, which she knew must be paining him because she felt like she was in pain herself.
‘Jet,’ he murmured. ‘God, Jet, Juliet—’
She froze for an instant, then scrambled off him roughly, wincing as she hit her sore knee on the floor as she went. She barely registered the pain. Her heart was pounding too loudly, her vision was too bright, her stomach was too tight, like the world had just tipped on its axis and taken it with her.
She gripped the arm of the sofa tightly as she stared at him in shock.
He blinked. ‘Jet?’ It was tentative.
‘You called me something else.’ It was an accusation.
Dan released a long breath and pushed a hand through his hair. ‘Yes. Juliet. Jet’s short for Juliet, isn’t it?’
‘You don’t know that.’ Still accusing.
He shrugged, but it was tight. ‘You’re so elegant you struck me as a Juliet.’
‘You’re lying.’
Silence fell between them, Jet staring accusingly at him, and Dan sat waiting, just waiting. He tipped his head to the side, regarding her thoughtfully. There was no judgement in his gaze.
‘You’re right,’ he said finally. ‘Juliet doesn’t suit you. Jet does.’
Jet blinked, still shocked. It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.
‘What do you think?’ he asked. ‘Which suits you better?’
Jet sunk into the sofa and put her head in her hands, grateful the hairdresser had left her hair long enough to cover her face. ‘I honestly don’t know,’ she muttered.
She heard Dan get up off the floor and the sofa dipped as he sat beside her. ‘I thought as much.’
Why wasn’t he angry with her? Why was he being so patient, so understanding? Because that’s what real men are like, she thought more bitterly than she would have liked.
‘How long have you known?’ she asked, raising her eyes to meet his.
‘I’ve suspected for a while, but I wasn’t sure.’
‘Let me guess, it was the day of our lunch together when that waitress compared me to Juliet?’
Dan’s lips quirked. ‘You mean, she compared you to yourself?’
‘Yes,’ Jet replied,
not hiding her exasperation. ‘But you didn’t know that.’
‘No, I didn’t. I did have a feeling there was something you were hiding.’
‘Really?’
He nodded. ‘Right from the beginning when we first met.’
Jet threw herself back onto cushions behind her. ‘See? I’m hopeless at this! I’m just lucky it’s only you and your parents I have to pretend to be someone else with.’
‘What about all our customers and clients?’
Jet waved a hand in the air. ‘That’s different. That’s business. I don’t need to be anyone else then.’
‘Because you’re already yourself,’ Dan finished for her.
Jet gaped at him. He was right. Why hadn’t she ever seen it herself?
‘Is that how you survived being married to Andrew Temple? Your business?’ he asked.
‘Only ... after. Before that, I’d thought we were happy.’ She frowned. ‘I loved him.’
‘But not his life.’
‘No,’ Jet replied, even though it hadn’t been a question. ‘It’s not a bad life necessarily. Plenty of women would have killed to be in my shoes.’
‘Just not for you.’
‘No.’ Jet sighed and shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I still can’t quite believe I’m here and that I’ve put your family in this situation. It’s not fair of me.’
‘I’m still not sure how you managed to convince my Dad with your fake identity. He used to be a cop, you know.’
He doesn’t know. Jet’s eyes widened, but it was too late.
Dan’s jaw tightened. ‘He knows,’ he said flatly.
‘I’m sorry, Dan.’ Jet reached out a hand, but Dan stood up out of her reach.
He looked down at her, his expression grave. ‘I asked him and he lied to me.’
‘What did you ask him?’
‘I asked him if you were Juliet Temple. He said he’d hired Jet Appleton.’
Jet released another breath. ‘He did. Jet was my nickname growing up and Appleton was my mother’s maiden name.’
‘I’m not really sure that makes it any better.’ Dan turned and paced to the window, looking out into the night. ‘I understand your need to get away from your ex-husband, but involving my Dad in the lies—and Mum and I unknowingly—is hardly fair. Andrew Temple is one of Australia’s most powerful men.’
Jet studied Dan’s broad shoulders, absorbing his words. Was it possible he didn’t know the real reason for her being here? If he’d looked her up on the internet, he would have seen the news stories about the girl’s death and it being an event she’d hosted. But maybe he hadn’t put two and two together. It wasn’t Andrew she was running from at all. Did she have the courage to tell Dan the truth?
Jet’s stomach sank further. Perhaps Marty wouldn’t want her to tell Dan the real reason for her presence at Rhodes Family Estate. But if she didn’t say something to Dan now, she’d still be lying by omission. And how was that fair when she’d let him kiss her, when she’d kissed him back? If she kept lying now, she’d be taking advantage of a decent man.
Jet cleared her throat, secretly glad she couldn’t see Dan’s face. ‘Yes, Andrew is a powerful man, and he’s probably looking for me right now. But he’s not the reason I’m here. Did you read any news stories about me when you looked me up?’
‘A few. Why?’
‘There would have been some about Alex Benedetti’s party,’ she prompted, not yet ready to say the words.
Dan turned. He frowned, making his brow furrow with impatience. ‘Yeah. The guy sounds sick, if you ask me, getting involved with underage girls. Whether he killed that girl or not, who knows. That’s for the police to figure out. I can appreciate you’re worried about your business being tied up in a mess like that.’
‘Not just my business,’ she told him quietly.
She knew the exact moment Dan figured it out because his eyebrows lifted and his eyes widened in shock. ‘That’s why you’re here?’ He came over to her, closing the distance between them in a few long strides, and crouched down in front of her. ‘Jet? Are you in some sort of danger?’
She nodded, not taking her eyes from his gaze. ‘I don’t know, Dan. I think so. And so do the police investigating the case.’
Chapter Eighteen
An hour later, Dan made his way back to the main house.
He needed time to think. Time to process everything she had told him. She made him promise he wouldn’t confront his father tonight, and he’d agreed. Dan wasn’t planning on doing that, anyway. He would definitely be having a quiet conversation with his dad, but only when he was ready.
First, he needed to make sense of everything.
After she’d admitted to being in danger, it was like the last of Jet’s walls had finally come down. She’d sat there on the sofa and quietly recounted the events that had brought her to Rhodes Family Estate in painstaking detail. Dan suspected he was the first person she’d actually discussed all of this with. Sure, his father knew the situation, but the way Jet had carefully described everything to him told Dan she had been bottling it up.
First the events of the party and that creep Benedetti’s insistence on sharing a drink with her. Then what she remembered of the drugging and the girl. Dan had felt sick when she’d told him. Sicker still as he registered the tone of her voice. Flat. Emotionless. Like she wasn’t letting herself have any feelings about the way she had been violated that night—and it had been a violation. Jet may not have been physically harmed, or God forbid, raped, but she’d been taken advantage of in the worst possible way. A coward’s way.
Back in his bedroom in the main house—the same bedroom he’d grown up in—Dan flipped open his laptop and started searching for anything he could find about Alex Benedetti and the party. The media were equal parts confused and convinced about Benedetti being the killer. On one hand, they adored him and couldn’t imagine the sexy young bachelor in need of hired girls. Other reports were more scathing, pointing out that alcohol and powerful, good-looking men were a bad combination when it came to the opposite sex. The writers suggested that perhaps something had gone wrong on the night of the party. Too many drinks, too much fun and somebody got hurt. These suggestions were made with no real incriminating facts—other than the obvious, which was it was Alex’s party and he had been linked to young, beautiful women before.
The reports had also been lacking information that Dan was now aware of. The fact that Jet—Juliet—had been the only person to witness the girl’s presence at the party that night. Or that Juliet had been involved in a questionable car accident less than two weeks after the party. A hit-and-run. Enough to have seriously shaken her so that she’d approached Andrew for help.
From what Dan knew of Jet, he knew a request for help from her ex-husband was not something she would do lightly.
Dan scanned the news articles for at least an hour, until the few drops of red wine in the bottom of his wine glass had stained and dried there.
There had been a group of them, Alex and his mates. Rich, powerful young men, adored by society and the population at large for their wealth and good looks. Dan wouldn’t go so far as to say talent, because he’d never watched the sort of trash Alex acted in, but maybe he was a better actor than Dan thought. Maybe he was a killer as well as an actor, and he was clever enough to play innocent.
It was certainly feasible to Dan that the party had gone too far and the girl had been killed by accident. But Juliet’s drugging hadn’t been an accident, it had been deliberate. And what of the hit-and-run? If it wasn’t an accident, then it could be something far more dangerous—the sort of danger the police weren’t taking any risks with, because Jet was here. Dan wasn’t familiar or even equipped to deal with that sort of danger.
Then there was Jet’s run-in with the car this morning. She claimed it was an old couple or a simple misjudgement, but her tone of voice suggested his father thought otherwise. Dan himself felt otherwise now he knew the rest of Jet’s story. Th
at she’d even mentioned it to him was telling, in his opinion.
First thing tomorrow Dan would be having a conversation with his dad. They needed to clear the air and ensure there were no more lies between them. Dan was still angry and feeling betrayed, but on some level he understood his father’s duplicity. Despite everything, Dan was glad she was here. It may have been lies that had brought her to the estate, but he was still grateful she was under their watch, even with an infinitely more powerful ex-husband who had every means at his disposal to keep Jet safe.
And from now on, he planned not to let her out of his sight.
***
Jet was called into Marty’s office the next morning about half an hour after she arrived. She was yet to see Dan, who had been in his father’s office with the door closed ever since she’d gotten there. Jet was certain she knew the reason for the discussion between father and son.
At Marty’s request, Jet stood and joined them. As always, Marty’s light blue eyes were kind. Jet felt worse than ever.
Inside she sat opposite the desk beside Dan, who was already seated. She could feel his eyes on her but she didn’t look over. She’d spent a restless night caught between relief at having told him and regretting that she had.
‘I suspect you know why we’re here,’ Marty said as he sat down.
‘Yes.’ Jet’s voice was quiet and it was easier to focus on Marty than his son sitting beside her.
‘First off, it’s probably better Dan knows. I didn’t like excluding him and judging by the fact you felt comfortable to tell him, I’m going to trust your judgement.’
Jet felt her cheeks heat and still she kept her gaze on Marty. As usual, he was being too kind. ‘I wouldn’t necessarily call it judgement,’ Jet corrected. ‘More like a weak moment.’
A very, very weak moment. Jet could still feel Dan’s lips on hers and the warmth of his hands.
Dan twisted in his chair to face her, his blue eyes cool. He waited until Jet reluctantly met his gaze. ‘So you regret last night?’
Last night. It was a deliberate choice of words on his part, and they both knew it.
Don't Let Me Forget Page 11
